From business to health to science, these women have found different perspectives and ways of doing things in their chosen fields.
Though varied in their spaces – the beverage industry, health care, and environmental awareness– one thing they have in common is a drive to bring new ideas to their work.
BONNIE MONTELEONE first saw the ocean when she was five years old on a family trip. Watching the waves crack, she felt a calling. She understood, though unsure how at the time, that she wanted to protect this vast, sacred part of the world.
Once moving to North Carolina later in life, Monteleone began working in the chemistry department’s office at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Inspired by the scientists around her, she began her master’s in liberal studies, which offered scientific writing courses. During school, she was introduced to scholarly articles cataloging the deep-seated issue of microplastics in the ocean. Moved to learn more, she connected with a researcher, CHARLES MOORE, who invited her to serve as crew on an upcoming trip.
After spending thirty days on a sailboat collecting microplastics with Moore, Monteleone found her answer to the “How?” question she had posed as a child standing in front of the sea.
Soon after, in 2011, she defended her master’s thesis on microplastic pollution. Afterward, a student approached her and asked, “What are you going to do with the plastic you collected?” Monteleone, not having a prepared answer, replied, “I’m going to make it into art.” As a woman of her word, she did just that.
Monteleone submitted a proposal to the UNCW Boseman Gallery shortly after her thesis defense and was greenlit to complete her first piece – a reimagination of “The Great Wave” by Hokusai using found plastic material from her fieldwork. Soon after, more galleries began calling, and Monteleone, with a van to transport her work, given to her by her mother, drove around the country showing her art exhibit, “What Goes Around Comes Around.”
The traveling collection has now been shown in fifty locations nationally, with two more scheduled this spring. The piece is more than an artistic feast for the eyes; it is a call to action.
Seeking more ways to tackle the microplastic crisis, in 2012, she collected samples from the South Pacific as part of the film project A Plastic Ocean. This work led to co-founding the Wilmington-based nonprofit, Plastic Ocean Project (POP), with PAUL LORENZO later that year.
With Monteleone as co-founder and executive director, POP has been responsible for countless area cleanups and research projects, and built a staff of full-time and part-time employees, as well as interns and volunteers.
Details about area cleanups and events such as the nonprofit’s upcoming For the Ocean Gala at the Wilmington Convention Center on March 15 can be found on the group’s website (plasticoceanproject.org).
“My biggest achievement is that I know the cause of Plastic Ocean Project will continue to be served once I am no longer a part of it,” Monteleone says of the team she has built. “I have helped create something that will outlive me, that will continue improving the environment well into the future.”
To view more of photographer Terah Hoobler’s work, go to terahhoobler.com.
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